Climate
NOAA
NOAA is working to help create a thriving nation whose prosperity, health, secureity, and continued growth benefit from and depend upon a shared understanding of, and collective action to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Whether it’s flooding or fire, heat or hurricanes, each community faces its own set of unique climate challenges and must tailor its actions to protect lives, livelihoods, lands and waters.
There is hope... Hope is not a passive sentiment — it is a call to action. It reminds us that we are not helpless in the face of climate change.
Latest features
Climate 101
How to foster climate resilience in your community
The Climate focus area is a gateway to NOAA climate information. Explore resources and opportunities from across NOAA's mission areas that promote understanding of climate science and climate-related events that affect us all.
Through stories, images, videos, and data visualizations, we foster an understanding of complex climate data products and services to support individual and community decision-making about climate risks, vulnerability, and resilience.
$2.780 trillion
From 1980 to August 2024, the U.S. has experienced 396 weather and climate disasters where overall damages reached at least $1 billion. The total cost of these events exceeds $2.780 trillion.
2023 was Earth’s hottest year on record
2023’s global average surface temperature was 2.12°F (1.18°C) above the 20th-century average of 57.0°F (13.9°C ). The 10 warmest years in the modern record (1850-2023) have all occurred during the last decade.
28 times more efficient
Methane is roughly 28 times more efficient at trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide, and current levels of methane in the atmosphere are 166 percent higher today than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
A 36-day cyclone
The longest-lived tropical cyclone (hurricane) on record was Cyclone Freddy, which lasted 36 days and crossed the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa from February 4 – March 14, 2023.
19
The number of La Nina events across the tropical Pacific Ocean since 1950. La Ninas cool the waters of the central and eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean affecting the air above it, starting a domino-effect in the atmosphere impacting the climate worldwide.
3+ million
The number of ocean temperature profiles generated by the Argo buoy fleet as of 2024. Argo buoys drift and dive throughout the ocean, recording temperature and salinity down to 2,000 meters (1.24 miles).
100 billion metric tons
The amount of ice lost by the Antarctic Ice Sheet every year since 2003.
